Students motivations for sport involvement: The effect of age, gender and school level

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify student’s motivations for sport involvement according with student’s characteristics as gender, age and school level. The subjects were 1016 students, from ten different schools from the Lisbon metropolitan area, (577 male and 439 female; between 10 and 20 years old). We used a five points Likert type questionnaire with 30 items, a Portuguese version of the PMQ developed by Gill et al. (1983), translated and validated by Frias and Serpa (1991). A principal component analysis for the evaluation of the scale was done, and Descriptive statistics, Anova and Bonferroni test were used. The results showed that, globally, the most valorised motivations for participation in physical activity were reasons related with Fitness/Technical Achievement and Team Work and the less indicated motive was Status. Comparing motivational factors according to student’s school level and gender we found significant differences. Several motivational factors were significantly influenced by students’ age.